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Sunday, September 20, 2015

October Daily 101: Everything You Need To Know About October Daily & How to Prepare For It

Hello Lovelies!

Today I want to introduce you to an October Daily.

I would like to start off by saying this is a complementary post that follows along with my YouTube video also titled October Daily 101. Please watch to see examples and further detail on an October Daily Album.

I created this October Daily 101 blog post and video simply because the resources out there are lacking! I have gone to social media and searched for October Daily inspiration and have only found a few things here and there. I want to bring this to life and really get the ball rolling for those of us crafters, project lifers, journalers, and planner nerds who's favorite time of the year is October!
So let's get started!

An October Daily is essentially an album or journal where you document everyday leading up to Halloween. I'm sure you have all heard of a December Daily created by Ali Edwards, well this is essentially the exact same thing, instead of documenting everyday leading up to Christmas (or in my case, New Years Eve) you are documenting every day leading up to Halloween! An October Daily is for all the Halloween lovers out there. Halloween is my favorite holiday and I am so ready to finally start documenting my Octobers!

I believe it was my friend Cheri who is Scrappinnwrappin on YouTube who coined the term October Daily for one of her halloween mini albums in a previous year. She is also a halloween junkie and I love watching her halloween videos every year. Besides her and Laura McNabb on Youtube there are not many videos or inspiration out there.

I really want to see October Daily albums take the crafty world by storm so I hope that this will help. I also have many people on my Facebook page: Serena Bee Creative who are sharing their inspiration and albums. Many Halloween lovers have already started sharing their preparations and October daily albums on my Facebook page. We have all come together to inspire and work on our October Dailies together throughout the month of October and we would love it if you were to join us too!

I already covered the general overview of what is an October Daily (documenting everyday in October) but the way you choose to document is up to you.

Here are some different ways you can document your October Daily.

Mini album or Project Life style

Photo a day for Photographers

Journal a day for Journalers

Plan a day for Planner Nerds

There is always a way to document everyday for all you creatives out there be it planners, scrapbookers, project lifers, photographers, and journalers. For example, planner nerds can write down everything they do and add fun stickers to decorate. They can even add a photo per day in their planners if they'd like. Now let's look at some tools.

Tools to Help

1. PROMPTS:

Prompts can help out a lot. A prompt is a photo or list of different topics. I have created an October Daily Prompt for you to use! Look Below!

I added different topics that can prompt you to create or take a picture for that day. Prompts can be followed exactly day by day or you can customize it by adding your own topics or change topics around. I use prompts very loosely, I like to pick a prompt that I like per day and make it work with my life and schedule.

(Psst! You can pin this picture on Pinterest for when you are ready to start!)

Prompts are a great tool to use to help you when you are stuck or don't know what to document on those days where you just have nothing planned. For example, on my prompt I have day 2: "Favorite halloween or fall movie". You can print a photo of your favorite movie and talk about why you love it and what it means to you.

2. KITS:

Having a kit that you put together or purchase can really help you stay organized. A kit is essentially different items you purchase or pull out of your stash that you want to use in your October Daily. By having all the papers, project life cards, stickers and other embellishments out and ready to go, this will help cut wasted time digging in your stash to find stuff and it will maximize your crafting time when you sit down and work on your album. Because this is a daily project, having your tools at the ready will help tremendously! I also prepare a kit which I store out on my craft cart. You can have a look at my kit in this October Daily 101 YouTube video:

I am so excited to announce that this year I created my own halloween pattern papers, project life cards, and stickers for my annual Halloween Embellishment Kit. This year's kit is called Jeepers Creepers and it is available now! I designed this kit with October Daily in mind because I plan on using it along side my other halloween items.

3.JOURNAL:

I'll cover this next tool further in the next section but it is great to have a small journal where you can write down and keep track of your daily activities.

Create A Plan

Having a plan that you can execute while working on any project is key! I love to stay organized and it is especially important to have a plan when working on a project that lasts all month long.

1.HOW WILL YOU KEEP TRACK?

The first step is to think of how you want to document your October Daily. Do have a busy life and don't have time to sit down everyday to work on your album? Or do you have some time off during the week? Depending on your life and schedule, everyone can document their October dailies differently. Create a personal plan of action for when you will sit down and work on it. Will you work on it during the weekend? Daily? Or on a day off? Once you have that figured out then the next step is to keep track of your days.

Here is where that journal comes in handy from the Tools Section of this post. Keeping a small journal is great for when you are planning on working on your October Daily at a later time. You can keep track of all the stuff that happened per day and what you want to document in your album. You can also jot down a little note on which pictures you want to print for that day.

Here is my PLAN:

I am not one to work on my album daily. So I like to grab a small journal and create a page for each day. I carry it around with me so I can jot down things that happen throughout the day. In this journal I make sure to have the date and what I did that day. I may add more journaling if there's something specific that happened that I don't want to forget but mostly I write everything down in point form. I also make sure to jot down the pictures I have taken that correspond with each day so that I don't forget.

I work on my album mostly whenever I have a day off or on the weekends so having this journal is extremely helpful when it is time for me to sit down and get crafty. Sometimes I am still working on my albums months later! So having this journal is a life saver and a great way to remember all the fun stuff you did in October!

Also, on my iPhone I like to favorite the pictures I've taken by clicking on the little heart icon when you are viewing your picture in your photo album. By favoriting these pictures you are keeping them all together in the same place which makes it easier to find later when you want to print your pictures.

2. HAVE YOUR KIT READY:

This is why it is so important to have a kit pulled and ready to go. It makes it easier for you to work on your October Daily and can even help plan out what you want your future pages to look like. Lots of people who use pocket page albums also like to prepare their pages in advance. What this means is they cut their pattern papers or gather their project life cards and insert them into the pages ahead of time. This way they are ready to work on a spread and will have the papers already in place, all they need to do is add the pictures, do some journaling, decorate with some stickers, and call it done. A kit really helps facilitate the daily process of this project.

3.HOW WILL YOU PRINT YOUR PHOTOS?

Another important aspect you need to plan for, especially for those of you who are creating a mini album or doing a photo a day as your October daily, is how will you print your pictures?

There are many different ways to go about printing your pictures and it really depends on your personal preference and what resources you have available to you.

Here are some ways:

I use to have my pictures printed at Walmart. I would use their instant printer booths. I would gather all the pictures I want to print and the end of the week I would print them all together at Walmart using their photo collage option.

Now I use my Canon Selphy CP900 and my Instax Share Printer by Fujifilm to print my pictures. These photo printers are so convenient and makes working on daily projects a breeze! You can use any photo print you have!

Thus, it's important to have a photo plan in place for when you are ready to work on your October Daily, either get them printed at your favorite print store or print them at home.

4.PLAN FUN ACTIVITIES:

I like to organize fun activities in October so that I have stuff to document. There are so many different fun activities to do in October with your friends, family, and little monsters. Make sure you plan some of these fun halloween activities in advance so you have something to document on a day that you had nothing planned otherwise.

To sum up, an October daily is a great way to document all those fun Halloween moments and there are many things you can do that will facilitate your experience and process.

Make sure to have helpful tools set up such as daily prompts, an October Daily kit, and a journal to keep track of your daily activities. Furthermore, it is essential to have a plan set up that will help you stay up to date and organized when you are working on your October daily. Having a plan for when and how you will print your photos is crucial, a long with knowing when and how you will sit down and work on your album.

I hope you found this post helpful and can take away helpful tips for when you are working on your October Daily.

If you use my October Daily prompts please use the hashtag #octoberdailyproject on social media so that we can all stay in touch and motivate each other!

I hope you also take a look at my October Daily 101 video where I cover these tops and also show you my kit and more.

5 comments:

Love both your blog post and video Serena! I normally do my Week In The Life, the week of Halloween, but now you've got me thinking that I might want to do an October Daily instead.....haha!! Can't wait to see what you have in store for October......oh, and I went to purchase a kit and they're sold out already.....yay, SO excited for you!!

Hi Carrie! thanks so much for taking the time to comment! I'm glad my video and post has got you thinking about october daily, that's what i wanted to acheive! i still have some paper kits if you're interested, let me know! tfw!

I am not quite sure how I stumbled upon your channel on YT, but I am so glad that I did. I absolutely love Halloween and I love your project. I can't wait to get started!!!!!! I also can't wait to read more of your blog!

Although I'm not a fan of Halloween...at all....I AM excited about doing an October Daily. It's my birthday month and typically there are a few activities revolving around that, plus fall....foxes....apple picking, sweater weather. Mine will be more focused around those things and not Halloween. (I know, that's CRAZY to you lol!) I'm really jazzed about participating and just sent a FB group request. Thanks Serena!!!

I'm so excited to start this October Daily! I've linked to your blog too on mine so people can see where I found it. I love this! I'd love it if you checked it out! www.justsimplydani.com/october-daily-day-1

Welcome!

Hello Lovelies! Thanks for stopping by my blog. My name is Serena Bee and I'm so happy you found my little corner of the social media universe! So here's the jist, I like to make stuff! More specifically paper crafts, mini albums, cards, art journaling and mixed media, ATCs, home decor and so much more! You can find lots of inspiration on this here blog and on my Youtube Channel @ Serena Bee I have a love for the dark, creepy cute art so you will find that stuff too. Being creative is all I know and love. Hope you enjoy what you see and follow along for more!